Historiographer of arts (b. 17
December 1914, Kütahya). He attended the Bursa High School (1934) and graduated
from İstanbul University, Faculty of Literature and from the School of Teacher
Training (1938). He was successful in the exam held by the Ministry of National
Education and was sent to Germany to study Turkish-Islamic arts. He worked at
Marburg/Lahn University for some time. After military service, he was sent to
Vienna University and became a doctor here (1943). His doctorate thesis was “Die Osmanischen Beitrage Zur Islamischen
Baukunst” (Contributions of Ottomans to the Islamic Architecture). The same
year, he was appointed as an assistant to the Chair of History of Art at
İstanbul University. Here, he studied with his professor Ernst Diez from
Vienna.
He became an associate professor
with his thesis Osmanlılar Devrinde
Kütahya Çinileri (Ceramics in Kütahya during the Ottoman Era) in 1948 and a
professor and the Head of the Chair of History of Art in 1960. In 1963, he
established the Chair of Turkish-Islamic Art. In 1977, he was appointed as the
Director of the Institute of History of Art. He worked as a lecturer at
İstanbul University with the title of professor of art history, as the Head of
the Chair of Turkish-Islamic Art and as the Director of the Institute of Art
History (1943-83). He retired in 1983.
His articles appeared in the
reviews Türk Kültürü (1963-66, 72), Sanat Tarihi Yıllığı (1965, 68, 70-71,
73), Archeology (New York, 1971) and İstanbulen Mitteilungen 12 Tülingen
(1962). He has also published some works in German, on archeology, ceramics and
Turkish rugs.
MAIN WORKS:
Osmanlı
Devrinde Kütahya Çinileri (Ceramics in Kütahya during the
Ottoman Era, 1949), Edirne’de Osmanlı
Devri Abideleri (Monuments from the Ottoman Era in Edirne, 1949), Turkish Art and Architecture (London, New
York, 1971), Selçuklu Sanatı
Bibliyografyası (Bibliography of Seljukian Arts, 1971), Türk Halı Sanatı (The Art of Turkish
Carpets, 1972), Türk Çini ve Seramik
Sanatı (Turkish Arts of Ceramics and Tiles, in Turkish and German, 1965), Kıbrıs’ta Türk Eserleri (Turkish
Monuments in Cyprus, 1975), Yüzyıllar
Boyunca Türk Sanatı-14.Yüzyıl (Turkish Arts through the Centuries-14th
century, 1977), Kırım ve Kuzey
Azerbaycan’da Türk Eserleri (Turkish Monuments in Crimea and Azerbaijan,
1979), Türk Dünyası Kültür Haritaları
(Cultural Maps of the Turkish World, Volume 1: History and Organization, 1983), Osmanlı Devri Mimarisi (Architecture in
the Ottoman Times, 1986), Türk Halı
Sanatının 1000. Yılı (A Millennium of the Turkish Art of Making Carpets,
1987), Mimar Sinan Hayatı ve Eserleri (Mimar
Sinan, His Life and Works, 1988), Türkiye’de
Avusturyalı Sanat Tarihçileri ve Sanatkârlar (Australian Historiographers
of Art and Artists in Turkey, 1993).